« Lame Duck | Main | Lou Dobbs and the War on Christmas »

December 12, 2006

The BunkoSquad Commercial Roundup

THUMBS UP: BMW commercial where the kid unwraps his new robot(?) and starts screaming his head off, with his little sister joining in. Just makes me smile every time I see it.

THUMBS DOWN: The Visa Check Card commercial where the guy paying cash brings the whole Busby Berkley production to a screeching halt. I must be cursed, because I've never ever ever been behind someone paying with a debit card who didn't have some problem with the reader or the PIN entry or something. It's a sandwich. It's six bucks. Carry a few bills around.

THUMBS UP: I'm a Mac/I'm a PC. I've heard a rumor that Apple is thinking about getting rid of John Hodgman, because he's so hilarious and endearing as the PC that it makes it look like the PC's a better choice. Anyone else heard this rumor?

THUMBS DOWN: Dunkin' Donuts "Maybe It's Fratalian". My anti-Dunkies bias has been well chronicled in this space, but I actually kind of liked the latest round of ads. "Doin' Things Is What I Like To Do". "KARATE!" "Alarm Clock Catastrophe".

But this "Fratalian" ad is pathetic. First of all, the premise, that people are confused and frightened by these strange new words to describe coffee beverages. Yeah, there's some new place called Starbucks that might be opening a store in the Boston area soon; better launch a preemptive strike!!

Seriously. People in Saskatchewan, people in Amarillo, even people in Rhode Island, knew what cappuccinos and cafes au lait were back in 1997.

Second, John Goodman. How the mighty have fallen from the greatest roles in movie history. Hope they're paying you in Munchkins, big guy.

Third, the way Goodman sneers out "you order in English". Good strategy. Act like you're the beverage purveyor of choice for people who can't be bothered to learn a new word or broaden their horizons somewhat. And what's more, NO ONE WHO WORKS IN DUNKIN' DONUTS HAS ENGLISH AS THEIR FIRST LANGUAGE. At least in any of the Dunkie's I've had no choice but to go into in the last few years. If I have to pantomime to get a damn honey-glazed, please teach me how to say it in your native tongue so we don't have to go through this again next time.

UPDATE: Half an hour after this posted, I was unfortunately reminded about those Citibank commercials with the loud Russian guy. Thumbs down. Wery wery far down.

Filed Under: Pop Vulture | Permanent Link, Comments (6)   | Linking Blogs

Comments

first off, i too love the kid-opening-the-gift commercial, it has everything i love about the most charming clips on america's funniest home videos (which as you know i love) and everything i loved about xmas as a little kid (and let's be honest, now).

i heart dunkin donuts but the commercial of which you speak drives me bonkers. i guess because i like to learn new words, and the way they want to keep it simple cuz this is america makes me feel like they should just put 'freedom fries' on their menu and call it a day.

and i know this isn't very cutting edge of me, but i will always have a warm spot in my heart for john goodman for those first like 4 or so years of roseanne. love it.

end transmission.

Posted by: christine | December 12, 2006 10:26 PM

Now, I understand the premise of the DD commercials: you know, that there are all these foreign words in coffee nowadays, and that we should fight back by buying simple English lattes. Except: LATTE IS A FUCKING FOREIGN WORD!!!!! Call it a coffee with milk, you jackasses.

Posted by: Josh | December 13, 2006 12:05 AM

Lucky for us there's decaf available, huh?

Posted by: michael | December 13, 2006 12:26 AM

I don't know if the folks at CitiBank were looking to capitalize on the build up for 'Borat,' but does anyone actually find their commercials funny. It's as though they were thinking, 'look, he sounds like he's from some eastern European country you couldn't locate on a map...it must be comic gold!'

I'd give them points for getting people to make the product connection (annoying eastern European guy commercial = CitiBank), but that might actually keep people from using a CitiBank card.

Posted by: Andy | December 13, 2006 10:15 AM

I agree with your observations. But I still hate that "Alarm Clock Catastrophe" commercial and that "Head On" headache treatment commercial as well.

Posted by: Vin | December 14, 2006 08:05 AM

I actually like the Fratalian commercial. It makes me laugh. Besides, Starbucks doesn't even use its "foreign words" correctly, so I'd rather deal with cheaper, "low-brow" Dunkin' (who actually made me laugh at what odering coffee has become in this country) than Starbucks.

Posted by: Cal | March 10, 2008 10:27 PM